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Pricing tool 'boosts used car market'

Buyers and sellers can keep up with price changes in the used car market with the help of the Black Book Live trade pricing tool, according to makers CAP.

The tool lists price changes as soon as they are picked out from the markets - a departure from the usual trade price lists, which publish monthly.

One example cited by CAP is that of a Volkswagen Tiguan 2.0 TDi R Line, valued four times by editors at Black Book Live over a five-week period. The price was noted at £14,150 on July 16, rising to £14,570 by August 23.

Mike Hind, of CAP, said the tool was brought in to provide a clearer guide to the twists and turns of the market as they happen, in stark contrast to the off-the-pace monthly guide system.

He said that the firm had long experience of problems associated with trying to reflect such a fast-paced and rapidly-altering market - for example in 2008, when prices crashed, and in the subsequent upturn.

He said that customers cannot be served well in a constantly shifting market if the firms providing guides do not move with it.

Mr Hind added that Black Book Live provides customers with "appropriate information," and "takes us out of that vicious circle so that customers can see price changes as they happen".